Richard D North.

It's not often a good ploy to whinge, and this isn't exactly a moan. Well, only a bit of one. I want to stand up for my Life On a Modern Planet (1995) and Rich Is Beautiful (2005) as works of "rational optimism". Read more...

It's been a spectacularly bad few days for BP. Things looks set to get a bit worse. But they may yet turn out less than apocalyptic. Without shouting the odds, here're some thoughts. Read more...

We are at the beginning of the end of the phoney war on the BP oil spill. We seem to be in sight of beginning the real shooting. Here's why... Read more...

Obviously we all need to cross our fingers for BP. The oil giant needs the same luck as the seashores its oil may yet severely damage. This may, after all, be the worst such accident we have yet seen, as I said on the BBC's Today programme. I hope I wasn't premature in a later FT letter in suggesting that the oil giant, and its industry, will flourish however awful the outcome of this accident, and deserves to. Read more...

Just before I get too sunny, here are three areas where the country's politicians, and the Tories not least, face real problems. They all centre on the country's habit of self-deception. Read more...

This is a golden period for Conservatives. Their party is a natural vehicle for the politics and government of the early 21st Century. Who'd a thunk it? Read more...

One ought to take some risks at such a time. Mine is to say that this is the best political period for decades. Read more...

This is still a country which is socially conservative, sexually permissive, economically entrepreneurial and obstinately attached to a statist welfare system. But we are less inclined to disenfranchise the fence-sitting Lib-Dem voters. What now for the Tories? Read more...

In previous posts I have remarked what a great political and constitutional opportunity the UK now has. But it depends far more on individual MPs than on their leaders, constitutional historians, greybeard commentators or anyone else. Read more...